The Cyber Safety Fallacy

Cyber hacking is on the increase. Large multinational companies, even the FBI, have admitted to being attacked with ransomware. The recent scandal with Facebook highlights this issue. In one breach the public data of 2.2 billion users was compromised and during the Cambridge Analytica Scandal, personal information of 77 million Facebook users was collected and misused by British data mining analytics firm.

The crisis is such that since large organizations – which hold customer data – cannot protect their systems from hacking it means that individuals are very much at risk through no fault of their own. Simply to be a customer of a centralized platform can put an individual at risk.

“By 2020, the moderate cost of data infraction will go beyond $150 million and for businesses, cyber threat will cost over and above $2 trillion by 2019,” according to Jupiter Research.

More than 60% of network encroachment and information infringement happen because of compromised user credentials. The effect of this data breach can only be minimized when a good Virtual Private Network (VPN) is adopted by the user. While doing banking transactions or sending confidential emails, important details can easily be hacked by someone who has even a little knowledge about cyber technology. In such cases, VPNs help by encrypting any important details and information you share via the internet. Even if the hacker is able to generate your credentials, he would not be able to decode the heavy encrypted data that has been created via the VPN.

In America alone, 64% of people agree to pay a ransom after their data has been attacked by ransomware. This has led to an incredible increase in the attacks of ransomware globally. In 2017 alone, an increase of 36% in ransomware attacks was recorded. Ransomware attacks are increasingly sophisticated. In the past week in Ireland a huge campaign was launched by hackers. In this attack it is believed the cybercriminal organization had bought LinkedIn data from a major hack four years ago. The stolen data included emails and passwords. The ransomware email put the passwords harvested from the LinkedIn hack into the subject line thereby genuinely frightening people. It made front page news – the possession of an old password making the threat appear very credible. It is unknown how many people paid up but it is possible that many did.

Typically the expectant ransom amount averages $1,077 but it is believed this will significantly escalate by 2019. In fact, the most shocking news about ransomware is that more than 4,000 ransomware attacks have taken place every day since the year 2016 has begun.

From online personal information to bank details, nothing seems to be secure in the digital world.

“We live in a highly connected world today. On the one hand, it enables a seamless flow of information and lets you stay in touch with your loved ones. On the other hand, it’s an information security nightmare. Individuals are worried about their privacy and the security of their identities, and organizations like Facebook and Google aren’t helping. Organizations are concerned about the safety of their confidential data and the financial and reputational impact of the frauds. There is no one solution in the industry, which can put these concerns to rest.” says Shiv Aggarwal, CEO of MyEarthId.org

In addition to ransomware, identity fraud in on the increase. In the year 2016, the United States of America experienced an increase of 2 million people becoming the victim of identity fraud as compared to the previous year and raising the final count to 15.4 million, a report submitted by Javelin Strategy & Research.

The gateways that deal with money transfers are usually the main target of cyber criminals. Thankfully now Blockchain is here to aid banks, as it has implicit qualities which make it secure and more reliable. Banks can now mention those names that can view, modify and approve a certain transaction. Also, elimination of intermediaries has been possible because of Blockchain today which in return ensures protection and confidentiality.

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